The soft crunch of mossy rock under foot was one of the only sounds breaking the silence of the forest, alongside the rhythmic huffing of Rok and the sound of water sloshing about in a crude barrel that he carried with both hands.

This… should be enough… almost… done….

The trek from a small pool of water back to the Colossus was relatively short, yet naturally the hard part with the heavy barrel of water was unfortunately also the part going back uphill. A slow, steady, rhythmic march.

“Gueh!?” Rok sputtered, as he stumbled over a thick tree root protruding from the ground, causing a chunk of water to splash out of his barrel.

Hard… to focus…

He was nearing the limits of his stamina. Such a simple mistake in familiar terrain would ordinarily be laughable to a goblin, since traversing rock and wood comes as naturally as breathing.

However, even in his ungainly new form, and in spite of his exhaustion, not all of his senses were lost. Even as he stumbled, Rok suddenly felt all his hairs stand on end as his bloodshot eyes widened to their maximum.

He dropped his barrel of water and tried to twist around as fast as he could, but not fast enough! A long, wicked spear whizzed with incredible speed and force through the air and gouged a path through Rok’s left cheek and clipped a chunk out of his ear before implanting itself into a tree behind the large goblin.

His eyes sharpened as they quickly darted in the direction the spear came from, just in time to see a large man covered in tattoos, animal hides and armored in their bones sprinting towards him while wielding a vicious shamanistic staff covered in talismans and more bone spikes.

“HYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKYEKYEEEEE!!”

The man released an absolutely inhuman shriek as he blitzed in with animalistic fury, as Rok instinctively kicked his now empty barrel from the ground towards the thing. Only one thought pervaded his mind, even now.

WHY?! WHY?!?

Rok turned to flee back up towards the colossus, hoping the barrel would buy him a precious few seconds. However, as he started to run, he felt an intense pressure grasp his foot, causing him to fall the ground.

“GRAH!” Rok bellowed out, flipping over to see a large vine had burst out and entangled his foot, while more vines were rapidly creeping towards him from the underbrush.

*THWOOM*

Out of the corner of his eye, Rok could see the barrel he kicked towards the bestial man splinter and shatter with a swing of the shamanistic staff, while his other hand glowed green as he pointed it towards Rok and clenched his fist.

“UUUOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

Rok bellowed again, as he ripped a stone from the forest floor and immediately poured his mana into the stone as he used it to break the vine grappling his foot.

Reinforced Strike! Swift Strike! Swift Strike! Swift Strike! Agility!

The moment the vine snapped, Rok launched himself further up the hill as a mass of vines poured on top of where he just was. All of his senses were screaming to him, screaming to run!

“KYEHYEHYE! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME! As your bones become brittle, your skin like ash, as your muscles start to wither, you shall fall! FRAILTY!”

The sickening laugh echoed through the forest, as a turpid brown aura formed and burst from the Úlfhéðnar’s staff.

Rok winced severely, as all the built up strain in his body felt like it was amplified tenfold. He groaned and wheezed as he felt a drastic loss in most of his body’s functions.

“I… WILL NOT… DIE… MuSt… nOt… sToP!!” Rok screamed through the fluctuations in his warped vocal chords, as he focused his fear and rage inwards. As a black shroud glowed around his body, he could feel the effects of the spell lessening on him.

Without missing a step, the Úlfhéðnar ripped his spear from the tree with his free hand and launched it towards Rok as he continued his mad pursuit. As Rok tried to dodge out of the way again, the spear ripped through part of his upper shoulder, spraying blackened blood as it went.

However, the Úlfhéðnar was rapidly closing in. He was faster, stronger, and more experienced in every regard. And, unlike Rok, he was armed.

FASTER… FASTER!

With a burst of speed, Rok exited the forest into the clearing where he had been smashing rocks. He could see his crude scimitar and bow laying on the ground next to his stone pile, as the enormous hole in the Colossus gave the impression of a large half-moon cliff face.

I’M ALMOST… THERE….

As he approached his weapons, Rok’s vision became blurry. Rocks, trees, plants… all of it began to distort as a horrible feeling of nausea and vomiting overwhelmed his senses. Again, through his rage, he tried to will himself through it!

“KYEHYEHYE! I SAID YOU COULDN’T ESCAPE ME, MONSTER!”

The Úlfhéðnar’s twisted laugh came as he descended with fury upon Rok. His vision was blurry, and his hearing was starting to scatter. He needed to come up with something, and fast.

With a strong kick, Rok launched a mound of dirt and pebbles into the bestial shaman and immediately followed up with a right counter aiming for the Úlfhéðnar’s ribs.

Reinforced Strike! Swift Stri-

The goblin immediately paid for his mistake, as the shaman’s body twisted out of the way of his blow and his staff ripped into Rok’s knee, dropping him to the floor.

Rok was left with nothing. In a desperate bid to protect himself and live even a moment longer, Rok drew on all the energy he had left, driving his body of its limits in timing his dodges for any fatal blows and absorbing any that weren’t.

The power to avenge my family?! The power to fight? Why… Why… don’t we have the right to live…?

The Úlfhéðnar’s assault was relentless and fast, in mere moments he bludgeoned chunks of flesh from Rok’s arms, sides and legs. He was prepared to have his kill.

“IT ENDS HERE, KYEHYEHYE!” Before he could move in for the finishing blow, the air began to fill with a ghastly chorus of goblinoid moans and the earth trembled under his feet.

“What the-?” The shaman’s eyes darted around, his staff brought in defensively as he tried to locate the source of the disturbance.

This is my chance!

Rok didn’t hesitate, rolling on to his feet and launching himself away as fast as he could.

Even if my muscles tear and break, I will not stop, I will survive! Overdrive!

Blood from Rok’s wounds splattered across the ground as he dashed towards the Colossus. Before he could follow suit, the Úlfhéðnar saw it moving. His eyes opened wide in shock, as a massive column of stone and earth raised from the far side of the cliff, casting its shadow over him.

The voices… he could barely make out what they cried in the goblin tongue…

“Tribe… Danger… Must… Protect…? Shit.” There was a moment’s hesitation as he saw his prey, that demonic goblin, trying to escape.

“SHIT-ON-A-FUCKING-STICK!”

Before he could bolt away, the shaman grabbed his spear and launched it one last time after Rok. He didn’t wait to see if it hit, as he immediately turned to flee himself.

“FENRIR, I CALL UPON YOU TO UPHOLD THE CONTRACT AND GRANT BE THE POWER OF THE WOLF! WOLF-FORM!”

Almost seamlessly, the Úlfhéðnar transforms into a wolf as he sprints away, barely getting out of the way of the titanic column of stone smashing into the hillside. He didn’t want to look back, but he had not choice as a shadow began to rapidly cover all the land before him. He could see it… the hillside rising far above the trees… the half-moon cliff was actually an empty hole in the towering golem!

The Colossus took a massive swing at the tree line, shattering countless pines and oaks while sending a shotgun blast of splinters, earth and stone towards the Shaman, the outer edges of the shockwave pelting his coat and stabbing into his hide, causing him to yelp in pain.

However, its assault was not over… as the Colossus began to tear boulders from the hilltops and launched them after the fleeing wolf.

Lesser Healing, Evasion, Limber Stance, Reinforcement!

Using a combination of his skills, the Úlfhéðnar managed to dodge two of the boulders, but he was burning energy and fast. The goblin put up far more of a fight than he expected. Then… he saw the third boulder coming in, dead on.

Human Form!

With a leap and a twist, the Úlfhéðnar turned back in to a human facing the oncoming boulder. With a burst of green energy, a swarm of vines twisted themselves to make a net between two trees.

“Toughened Body! Reinforcement! Ki Wave!”

As the boulder tore through the net of vines, slowing its descent, a blast of energy erupted from his palm and impacted the boulder. However, it wasn’t enough, as it crashed into the earth and continued rolling towards the Úlfhéðnar. He then planted both of legs firmly onto the ground, each stomp causing cracks to form in the mossy stone, while bring his arms and fists to his side, prepared to punch forward, and pouring all his mana into his fists to protect him.

“KYEHYEHYE! IS THIS THE BEST YOU’VE GOT?! KYAAAAAHYAHYA!!!!” With a laugh and a ferocious slam, the shaman smashed both his hands into the oncoming boulder, the speed of its rotation shredding his flesh and driving him back at incredible speed, until suddenly… his footing disappeared.

The forced of the boulder knocked him downward into a dark crag, as it continued rolling onward overhead. The skin on his hands has been shredded down to his bones, and many of the bone piercings he had on his hands had been ripped out.

Heaving heavily, the Úlfhéðnar looked around… and froze. The moist, unsettling air was the least troublesome part. He could feel it… He could smell it… another presence similar to the goblin…

Night eye.

The walls were covered in a strange, slimy chitin. And… there were bodies of various creatures and piles of other matter in here. Each of them placed around countless large, white eggs. Amongst the bodies… were some that clearly smelled like the berserkirs.

Was I… wrong? The Úlfhéðnar had but a moment to think to himself, before he could hear the rustle of countless legs, wings and antennae.

This isn’t a hornet’s nest… what… is this?!

It only took him another moment to find out, as a small swarm of massive roaches began to emerge from the darkness. Their dark black chitin and massively enlarged mandibles blended nearly perfectly with the darkness in the crag, their locations given away only by their countless red eyes and demonic auras.

“What the fuck is this?!”

The Úlfhéðnar shrieked, followed by the sound of crunching chitin.